Red-crested tree-rat
The red-crested tree-rat or Santa Marta toro (Santamartamys rufodorsalis) is a species of tree-rat found in the monotypic genus Santamartamys in the family Echimyidae. It is nocturnal and is believed to feed on plant matter, and is mainly rufous, with young specimens having a grey coat. IUCN list the species as critically endangered: it is affected by feral cats, climate change, and the clearing of forest in its potential range in coastal Colombia.
It is known only from three specimens, a specimen collected in 1898 in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and identified by Herbert Huntingdon Smith, a specimen identified by the American ornithologist and entomologist Melbourne Armstrong Carriker in 1913 at the same location, and a further specimen observed in the same location in 2011. Found at altitudes of 700 to 2,000 metres, the species is endemic to Colombia in an isolated area with high levels of biodiversity. The species was initially identified as Isothrix rufodorsalis in 1899, re-classified as Diplomys rufodorsalis in 1935, and the monotypic genus Santamartamys was created in 2005 for the species.
On 24 December 1898, Herbert Huntingdon Smith identified the first specimen of Santamartamys in Ocana, Santa Marta, Magdalena, Colombia.[2] The specimen was of undetermined gender, and as all specimens of Smith's collections were collected by local hunters, there is no specific information regarding the location where the specimen was discovered.[2] A second specimen, also of undetermined gender, was discovered in around 1913 in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta by Carriker, but there is not much information regarding its location either, or the date of discovery.[2] It is assumed that the specimen was obtained through a gift or was purchased. It was recorded as a Santamartamys specimen in 1913 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Despite several organised searches, no other specimens were discovered.[3]
However, on 4 May 2011, two volunteers from Fundación ProAves photographed one individual at 1,958 m (6,424 ft) above sea level in El Dorado ProAves Reserve (11°06′02.93″N 74°04′19.36″W / 11.1008139°N 74.0720444°W) that was subsequently identified by Paul Salaman.[4][5]
Santamartamys specimens measure between 51 cm (20 in) from head to the tip of their tail, with their tails measuring between 18 and 28 cm (7.1 and 11.0 in).[6] The species can weigh up to 500 g (18 oz),[7] and has a woolly, soft, and long coat. The species is mainly rufous.[8] The hair on the dorsal region is of intense red colouring, and a large portion of the tail hair is black (basal), but the last two-fifths of the tail are white.[9] Its ears are small and light brown, and feature tufts of long hair on the inner surface, but lack hair on the outer surface. Between the eye and the ear, there is a tuft of long black hairs.[9] The thin whiskers can reach up to 13 cm (5 in) long, and has a strip of red fur around its neck.[8]
The upper surfaces of the front and rear legs are covered in a pale gray coat, and the hind legs are very short and wide.[9] The feet lack small tubercles and the thumb is covered by a nail.[8] Its skull is short and wide, and it has a heavy, large, and uncurved zygomatic bone.[9] The supraorbital ridge of the skull is large, and the interorbital region is very broad with nearly parallel sides.[9] The facial portion of the skull is very short, and the distance between the incisors and the molars is slightly less than the length of the coronary surface of its upper row of teeth.[9] Santamartamys has large eyes, which is consistent with its nocturnal behaviour.[2] It has two pairs of udders on the lateral edge of the abdominal side coat.[8]
